Front row tickets for Milan Fashion Week to be auctioned off for £55,000

Tickets to some of fashion's most exclusive catwalk shows sold to raise money for artists' centre

BY Ashley Clarke |
23 July 2014

Photo: AP

Top fashion show tickets are hard to come by. Strictly invitation only, doors are fiercely guarded by no-nonsense bouncers and clipboard-wielding PRs. But there is a new way in, thanks to an auction which is offering buyers the chance to attend some of the industry's most coveted shows - for a handsome fee.

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Front row tickets to the Fendi, Prada and Giorgio Armani shows in Milan are to be auctioned off on the 26th of July, with bids starting at $25,000 (£14,700), reports
Fashionista
. Alternatively, the package (which includes two tickets to each show as well as backstage access at Fendi) can be purchased prior to the auction
directly from the Artsy website
for a 'buy now' price of just $95,000 (£55,000). Tickets for the Miu Miu show, which runs in Paris, are also being sold, with bids beginning at $10,000 (£5,800).

These hefty prices may come as a shock to those of us who can recall that Rihanna has reportedly been handed £60,000 just to sit through a single fashion show, but the auction is for a generous cause: proceeds will go to the continued support of the Watermill Center, an art facility that pays to host young and emerging artists who are establishing themselves.

The auction
will also welcome bids for various pieces of art and photography, the piece expected to fetch the most being a video portrait of
Lady Gaga by Robert Wilson
, based on Jacques-Louis David's 'Death of Marat' painting, with bids to start at $80,000 (£47,000).

At $95,000, the trio of Milan tickets boasts the highest 'buy now' price of the entire auction, and the centre estimates the value of the package as priceless. Indeed, who can put a price on the glamorous experience of sitting on a buttock-numbing bench in a crowded room of huffing and puffing fashion editors for fifteen minutes? Still, we'll be keeping our eyes on next season's FROW to see who ends up paying for the privilege.